Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he told Russia's vice premier in talks on Tuesday that Israel must continue to hit hostile targets in neighbouring Syria, despite Moscow's decision to equip Damascus with advanced air defence missiles, Yahoo reported quoting AFP.

Netanyahu said at a press conference that he told Maxim Akimov in talks in Jerusalem that Israel would continue to fight what it says are Iranian attempts to entrench itself militarily in Syria and channel advanced weaponry to its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah.

Despite the delivery of the S-300 air defence systems to the Syrian military, Israel was committed as a matter of self-defence to continue its "legitimate activity in Syria against Iran and its proxies, which state their intention to destroy us", Netanyahu said.